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Alton Towers and the Cbeebies Hotel

I mentioned in my recent Summer Holidays Inspiration post that we had spent a couple of days at Alton Towers, well today I'm going to share a bit more information about our experience.

After a long drive we arrived at the Cbeebies Hotel where we were staying after a day in the park (hotel parking is free for guests). We were able to check in when we got there but not able to get in our rooms until 3pm which was fine because we weren't planning on going back until much later anyway. They gave us adults Cbeebies Hotel lanyards to wear and the children Cbeebies Hotel snap bands - these were very well received and a lovely touch I thought.

We went off to the park via a monorail (not the nicest experience but I've experienced worse) and had a fabulously exhausting day in the park. When we headed back to the hotel, again via the monorail, we were given our key cards to get in our room. The room itself was amazing, it was bright, colourful and had everything our not-so-little family needed.

Everything had been thought of in this room, it had a child's toilet seat with toddler stool, a nappy bin, a baby bath, bottle warmer and tucked away in a drawer was a travel cot which we didn't need because we'd planned on letting Z sleep in with us but it was a nice touch. The full sized toiletries provided in the bathroom were very welcome as, with six of us, the small ones hotels usually provide are completely inadequate.

Although the hotel is aimed towards little ones our older ones were perfectly happy with it, I think they enjoyed seeing how E and Z reacted to everything - their excitement was infectious! I just have to say here that I was so proud of T and N for agreeing to stay in that particular hotel and putting the little ones needs before their own 😇.

In the evening we went down to the entertainment area and watched a few shows. Each one was about 30 minutes long and starred some of Cbeebies most popular characters, Bing was a big hit with E who had been looking forward to seeing him in real life.

When the little ones were starting to get too tired we went back to our room and ordered room service while we got ready for bed - it arrived quickly and tasted yummy too. All in all our experience at the hotel was a good one.

After breakfast (included in the cost) and checking out in the morning we headed back to Alton Towers but this time we took our car instead of the monorail because the hotel reception gave us a free Express Car Parking ticket so we could park right outside the entrance to the theme park - much more civilised plus it meant we could head home as soon as we were ready.

The second day was just as much fun as the first, across both days the kids went on every ride that they had wanted to (T and N did the Big 6) and we managed to cover the whole park. The only downside for us was the difference in age groups - T and N wanted to go on the big rides while E and Z were happiest in Cbeebies land. We ended up splitting up for some of our time there so everybody would be happy.

Some of the bigger rides have a single rider entrance which is the same entrance as fast track, this is basically for anyone who is happy to ride alone without sitting next to someone they know. My two were more than happy to do that and I think this is why they were able to go on so many of the rides.

There was just one ride that we paid for them to fast track (Rita) and that was because it was over an hour queue time and there wasn't a single rider option. It cost £5 each and personally I think it was well worth it purely because it meant we were able to move on to other rides quicker.

The food options were good, scattered around the park there was definitely something for all tastes, we even found a Nitrogenie which sells ice cream made using liquid nitrogen! It was quite expensive (£4.95 each) but was absolutely delicious, it was seriously the most creamy and smooth ice cream I've ever tasted. If you ever get the chance to try some then definitely go for it. T liked it because we were able to watch them making it through the window (photo below, middle row far right) - the scientist in him was fascinated.

The rides are all quite spread out so there was lots of walking involved, I'd highly recommend pushchairs or buggy boards (or big brothers shoulders in E's case, see above) for those with little legs because it was very tiring. Actually I was surprised by how scenic the park was, the main area in the middle was just so pretty, I was expecting lots of crammed in rides but couldn't have been more wrong.

We're all desperate to visit Alton Towers again because we had such a fun couple of days. It was definitely a standout memory from this summer holidays.